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Poetry Terminology
Terms in Tables
Babette Deutsch, Poetry Handbook: A Dictionary of Terms
Mary Kinzie, A Poet's Guide to Poetry
Jack Myers and Michael Simms, The Longman Dictionary of Poetic Terms
John Frederick Nims, Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry
William Packard, The Poet's Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices
Alex Preminger, New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Lewis Turco, The New Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics
Lewis Turco, Poetry: An Introduction Through Writing
Miller Williams, Patterns of Poetry: An Encyclopedia of Forms
Metrical Feet
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Equivalents of Language & Poetic Meter (Preminger 774)
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Metrical Lines
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Stanzas
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Consonants
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Rhymes
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Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December (Poe, "The Raven") |
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"Father that wear rags / Do make their children blind, / But fathers that bear bags / Shall see their children kind." (Shakespeare, King Lear) |
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Terms in Alphabetical
Order
| abstract [Latin,
withdrawn] lacking physical detail. The opposite of concrete. Poetry is
concerned with the immediate, the specific, the concrete.
accent the stress placed upon certain syllables in English words alliteration the repetition of consonant sounds allusion an indirect brief reference to an historical or literary person, place, object, or event. Allusions appeal subtly to the memory of the reader, depending for their effectiveness on a body of knowledge shared by writer and reader. Biblical allusions and allusions to Shakespeare are common. ambiguity the state of having more than one meaning. Unintentional ambiguity caused by faulty pronoun reference or vague phrases detracts from poetry. Ambiguity which suggests two or more plausible meanings for the same context and continues simultaneously several different but suitable trains of thought is one of the characteristics of great poetry. anakreontics playful lyrics praising wine, amorous dalliance, and song, named after Anakreon, a poet born in Teos in Asia Minor around 572 BCE. anaphora the repetition of a word or group of words at the beginnings of lines Anglo-Saxon the language spoken by the Germanic-speaking people who settle in England in the 5th and 6th centuries, also known as Old English. The core vocabulary of modern English is derived mostly from Anglo-Saxon words, which tend to be of one syllable and heavy on fricatives, gutterals, dentals, and plosives. They often are w ords with earthy, directly physical connotations. apostrophe direct address to an absent person or personified concept or object. archaic diction or archaism the choice of words from earlier eras in contemporary poetry. A common problem of beginning poets who haven't read much poetry beyond Edgar Allan Poe and the poets of earlier centuries commonly assigned in high school. Romantic-era poets often used archaic diction; otherwise, most poets of most eras have used the language as they and their contemporaries spoke it. archetype assemblage association assonance the repetition of identical vowel sounds aubade a morning song, usually a joyous poem of two lovers parting at dawn after a night of love automatic writing avant-garde ballad ballade blank verse unrhymed iambic pentameter, much used in Shakespeare's plays caesura catalogue poem chapbook cliché a trite, overworn expression; a dead metaphor closure the sense of completion at the end of a poem collaborative poem collage poem conceit a witty extended metaphor concrete images concrete poem confessional poem connotation consonance a near rhyme in which the final consonants in the strssed syllbles agree, but the vowels that precede them differ, as in add/read, word/lord consonant rhyme copyright couplet cover letter dactyl deep image denotation diction dramatic monologue dramatic verse elegy empathy encomium a poem in praise of a living person, object, or event. Encomiums often use the ode form. end rhyme end-stopped line a line of verse which completes a grammatical unit, often with a mark of punctuation, at its end. The opposite of enjambed or run-on lines. end-word the last word of a line of verse. enjambment the continuation of the sense and the grammatical structure of a line of on to the next line of verse. The opposite of end-stopped. envoy epic epistolary poem ethnopoetics etymology euphony extended metaphor feet feminine rhyme (double rhyme) figure of speech foot form found poem free verse ghazal haiku hyperbole iamb iambic pentameter image internal rhyme inversion juxtaposition language poetry Latinate light verse line break little magazines line lyric poetry manipulated poem masculine rhyme meditation metaphor meter metonymy modern poetry monologue motif multiple submissions mythopoeia narrative poetry new formalism objective correlative off-rhyme onomatopoeia organic form parallelism parody pastoral pentameter performance poetry persona personification poem of address poetic diction poetics poetry poetry reading prose poem prosody pyrrhic quatrain repetend repetition rhyme scheme rhythm run-on lines SASE scansion sense of place sense of play sentimentality sestina sibilance "S" or "SH" sounds simile slant rhyme small press sonnet spondee stanza stress surrealism syllabic verse syllepsis A grammatical construction in which one word (often a verb) is placed in the same grammatical relationship to two other words (often the objects of the verb) but in different senses, as in Alexander Pope's line, "Or stain her honor, or her new brocade." symbolism synecdoche synesthesia tenor tercet tetrameter title tone traditional forms trimeter trochee vehicle verse villanelle voice writing workshop
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